Peace and War

Remember how for six years we were told by Congress members and the corporate media that withdrawing from Iraq would lead to disaster (somehow worse than the existing hell)? Remember how we pointed out that the occupation was a leading cause of the violence? Here Patrick Cockburn reports that the partial withdrawal thus far read more

By David Swanson

Compiled below, in hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve is a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals. These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed read more

Who Decides About War?
WhoDecidesAboutWar.org

National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy
October 2-3, 2009
Washington D.C.

Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President? The Courts? The People?

What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What type of military?

REGISTER NOW

"Who Decides About War" will be a national conference confronting essential questions raised by the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These questions are timely, read more

By David Swanson

In November 2008, then President George W. Bush and then Puppet Nouri al-Maliki negotiated an unprecedented, unconstitutional treaty to “legalize” three more years of war in a manner not unlike the “legalization” of invasions, detentions, torture, and warrantless spying by secret decree of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice.

This treaty was public, but it was not called a treaty. Instead Bush presented it as a “Status of read more

By David Swanson

A few words from U.S. troops in Iraq, all quoted in Chapter 1 of Dahr Jamail’s brilliant new book “The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan”:

“Oh yeah, we did search and avoid missions all the time. We would go to the end of our patrol route and set up camp on the top of a bridge and use it as an over-watch position. It was a common tactic. We would just sit there and observe rather than sweep. We would call in radio checks read more

By David Swanson

If Attorney General Eric Holder creates a special prosecutor for torture but forbids him or her to prosecute the lawyers who facilitated torture or the top officials who ordered it, proposing to go after only torturers who exceeded the limitations outlined in the lawyers’ memos, what are the risks?

The risks for Holder could, for all we know, include being fired immediately, being asked to “resign” in three-and-a-half years, not being appointed to the Supreme Court, read more

I’ve argued for amending PayGo legislation to include war supplemental bills, but have now been advised by congressional staff that this is not needed, because supplementals do not count as “emergency” exceptions and are covered by the bill as written. If this is true, and if PayGo passes, then the next supplemental will have to be paid for.

By David Swanson

This fact sheet from Steny Hoyer promoting PAYGO has persuaded me to oppose it. Here’s a key excerpt:

“Q. Why doesn’t PAYGO apply to funding for the war[s]?

PAYGO does not apply to any discretionary spending provided through the appropriations process, including supplemental appropriations. Discretionary spending is generally subject to the annual spending limits set in the budget resolution. Although funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has been provided read more

By David Swanson

This moment, in which the Attorney General of the United States claims to be considering the possibility of allowing our laws against torture to be enforced seems a good one in which to reveal that I have seen over 1,200 torture photos and a dozen videos that are in the possession of the United States military. These are photographs depicting torture, the victims of torture, and other inhuman and degrading treatment. read more

I’m encouraged by this assembly of major and minor peace organizations from around the country. We’ve agreed to organize a national protest (including both a demonstration and civil resistance) at the U.S. House office buildings and the White House on Monday, October 5th, 2009. We’ve agreed to organize local and regional protests on Saturday, October 17th, 2009. We’ve amended the language of the action statement to include a demand to end war crimes, including torture, read more

IOT: End the Occupation, Redirect Funding July Call

Special Guests on this call was our Healthcare NOT Warfare Co-Chair Norman Solomon who updated us on Afghanistan. David Swanson and Mary Nichols-Rhodes updated us on the July Pittsburgh Peace Convention.

LISTEN HERE

Hope to see you in Pittsburgh this weekend for this conference. Here’s latest revision of a proposal I’ll present:

Action Proposal

Organize a mass protest march and civil resistance against war funding at House side of Capitol Hill on the 8th anniversary of invading Afghanistan, on Wednesday, October 7th — or alternatively on Monday, October 5th, to be closer to a weekend. Such an action can be combined with local district and state actions, and can include a protest at the read more

By David Swanson

This is not from the Rethink Afghanistan project, which has been producing so many great clips about Afghanistan (including their latest, Part 5, about women). This is a full length film from 2006 about two American women whose husbands were killed on 9-11-2001 who raise money for and visit Afghanistan women whose husbands were killed by American bombs. This movie is probably more relevant now than it was in 2006. It is extremely well done. It’s called Beyond Belief.

The read more

By David Swanson

Should soldiers follow illegal orders? Should they take part in illegal wars and occupations? And if they don’t want to do so, what choices do they have? And what can we do to help them? These are some of the questions addressed in a new book by Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd called “Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent.”

From: http://www.gregmooreart.com/portraits.html

This book addresses these topics as well as any I’ve read more

Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Cindy Sheehan is deservedly the best known peace activist in the United States. Having lost her own son in Iraq, she has worked for the past five years to save others — and she’s not about to let up in her efforts to end our foreign wars and create justice around the world and here at home. More about Cindy:
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com

Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie read more

By David Swanson

There are a million and one things that people can do to try to end the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and to prevent new ones in Iran and elsewhere, as well as to close U.S. military bases in dozens of other nations around the world. Certain people are skilled at or interested in particular approaches, and nobody should be discouraged from contributing to the effort in their preferred ways. Far too often proposals to work for peace are needlessly framed as attacks read more

By David Swanson

Do they have a fourth of July in Italy? That’s not a trick question. This July 4th, Italians plan to gather in Vicenza to take nonviolent action aimed at freeing Italy from U.S. occupation and opposing the proposed construction of an enormous new U.S. military base in a town already swarming with U.S. troops stationed at existing bases. For years now, a major campaign organized by local residents has resisted the construction of read more

By Alan McConnell

[Editor’s note: Like anyone who runs a website or is involved in political activism, I am frequently sent idiosyncratic proposals to save the world with a new and different approach. Most of them, like this one, probably won’t quite do that. Most of them, like this one, have plenty of merit, however, as one approach among many. Feel free to send in your own. –DS]

Dear David,

Yesterday you asked that I send you E-mail with my thoughts on your and my activities. read more